


The Date

by OnlyHim



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, Light Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-09
Updated: 2017-05-09
Packaged: 2018-10-29 23:56:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10864776
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OnlyHim/pseuds/OnlyHim
Summary: Danny is extremely mad at Steve because he messed up, but maybe this time Steve had a good reason for it.





	The Date

Danny had even brought his (and Steve's) favorite shirt. They were going out straight from HQ, but that didn't mean he couldn't make an effort to look his best. He had showered, shaved and now he was all dressed up, in his office, waiting for Steve. Who was late. An hour late.

He'd been trying to call him for the past half hour with no luck, it kept going straight to voicemail. Danny didn't know if he should be getting worried or angry. He settled for both. And upset. And disappointed. It had been forever since they'd been able to have a decent date. Something always came up, or they were just too tired to go out. This time they had promised themselves that no matter what happened, they were going. Even the rest of the team were on board. They'd take care of anything that might happen and barring a specific request from the governor herself, it was happening.

Except it wasn't. They had already missed their reservation – the one that they'd had to book one month in advance, even with all their connections. They probably would still have time to go to watch a movie, but only if Steve got there sometime in the next ten minutes, and they wouldn't have time to eat. Danny didn't really appreciate the idea of sitting through a whole movie starving as he was – after the day he'd had, popcorn just wouldn't cut it. With a heavy sigh, he thought about calling Steve one last time before giving up and heading home when the phone started ringing in his hand.

“Danny, I'm so sorry,” Steve said as way of greeting.

“Where the hell are you?”

“Gas station near H3.”

Danny was stunned speechless for a whole fifteen seconds.

“And you're there why exactly?”

“I, ah... I had something to do up north.”

“You left four hours ago. You should've made it back by now.”

“I know, I intended to, but I ran out of gas...”

“You ran out of gas? How does Lt. Cmdr. Steven I'm-always-prepared-for-everything McGarrett run out of gas?”

“I'm not used to the new truck, okay? It consumes a lot more than the other one, and I was distracted so I didn't realize I didn't have enough...”

“Why weren't you picking up your phone?”

“It died. I had to walk all the way here, now I'm using their phone.”

“What the hell, Steve? Since when do you let stuff like this happen? What if we had an emergency?”

“I know, I'm sorry. I was distracted.”

“So you said. What was so important that justified you ruining the one time we'd actually managed to set aside some time just for us?”

“I... I can't tell you...”

“You can't tell me?” Danny couldn't believe his ears. He'd never seen Steve behave so out of character and now he was going to pull one of his stunts and keep Danny out of the loop? That was just the utterly infuriating cherry on top of the crap of the cake that had been his horrible day.

“No. I'm sorry, Danno, I'm really sorry.” Danny could hear the miserable tone in Steve's voice, but he was too frustrated to care.

“Whatever, Steven. I don't even give a crap anymore. I'm going home. I'll see you tomorrow.”

 

**********

 

Danny woke up when he felt the mattress dip beside him. He rolled on his back to find Steve sliding between the sheets, all hesitant as if afraid that Danny would yell at him. Even in the dark Danny could see that Steve had a very impressive kicked puppy look.

“I'm sorry, Danny.” Steve had kept a good three feet between them and he'd made no attempt to reach Danny to touch him.

“What are you doing here, Steven? I thought I said I'd see you tomorrow.” The few hours of sleep that Danny had had hadn't helped in assuaging his frustration, and he knew it could be heard in his voice.

“I know, and I was gonna wait, but I couldn't sleep. I couldn't stand knowing that I disappointed you so much.”

“Worst part is I don't even know why.”

“Well, that's one of the reasons I came, to tell you that. I didn't want to tell you over the phone but now I just couldn't wait until tomorrow. Or until you stopped being mad at me.”

Danny let out a very deep sigh. He was in no mood for this. He really was very disappointed, and frustrated, and angry and he didn't know if he felt like forgiving Steve yet, even if he had a good reason for not being there for their date. Either way, he wanted to know why, if only to maybe help himself calm down. He rolled towards Steve so he could look straight at him.

“Okay, let me have it. What's your great excuse?”

“There's this jeweler on the North Shore. He's an old friend of my family, my mother bought all her favorite jewelry from him, she said if you wanted something special that's who you should go to. He lived here, but he moved to the North Shore a few years ago. And I needed someone I really trusted for this.”

“And all of this is relevant to me how?”

“Just let me finish. I had this ring, it was my grandmother's wedding ring. She kept wearing it even after my grandfather died, she said that she would always be his, so there was no point taking it off. As you know, I was named after him so... Well, it has my name on it... and it's really special to me.”

“Steven... where are you going with this?” Danny was starting to feel panic take over him. Steve couldn't possibly be... They'd just started dating, he wouldn't...

“Hear me out before you start panicking, okay? I'm not... I'm not proposing to you. I know it's way too soon. But I wanted you to know that I'm serious about us. I mean, I know you know, but I wanted something more... concrete. Something other people could see, too. I mean, not that I want to imply that I'm taking some kind of claim on you-”

“You probably are a little bit.” Danny couldn't help interrupting with a small jibe on Steve. Against his better judgment, he was beginning to relax, and it was getting hard to contain the small upturn on the corner of his lips.

“I'm not- Fine. You know me too well. But that's not the main reason. I mean that I want people to know that you have someone who cares about you and who doesn't want to hide it. I'll wear one too if it makes you feel better- Oh, no, shit, that's not- I didn't mean to say that, I don't expect you to- I mean, I don't want you to feel obligated to wear it, I just wanted-”

“Jesus, Steve, relax. For once I'm not jumping into any conclusions, so why don't you just go ahead and finish your beautiful albeit somewhat convoluted speech.”

“That's very funny, Daniel, thank you.”

The sarcasm in Steve's voice that still didn't manage to hide all his nervousness made that smile finally make its appearance. “I aim to please.”

“Jerk. I don't even know why I bother-”

“Because you love me. Now keep going.”

Steve huffed and Danny had to struggle to hide his laugh. “ _Anyway,_ what I was trying to say is that even though I know it's too soon for any kind of official commitment or whatever, I still wanted to show you that I am committed to you. That you're it, and I have no plans of going anywhere. So I wanted to give you something that meant a lot to me, to show you that I trust you not to just... leave.”

“Wow, that actually was really sweet.” It was, and Danny had to swallow the small knot that formed in his throat.

“Gee, don't sound so surprised.”

“Well, you have to admit that it's really rare for you to express your feelings with words and not only looks – which you think I don't notice, but I do. Now, can I see the ring, or are we just gonna spend all night talking about it?”

“Oh, right.” Steve scrambled around to turn towards the nightstand and came back with a small box. He handed it to Danny without looking at him.

Danny opened the box and admired the ring. It was a simple gold band and it wouldn't look like much to anyone who saw it, but Danny knew better than that. He'd know even without Steve's speech and he felt... honored was the right word. He knew better than anyone what Steve's family meant to him, what his grandfather meant, when he still had a history that hadn't been shot to hell. Danny wasn't even sure if he deserved such an honor, but one look at Steve's expectant eyes told him that Steve thought so. He put the ring on, and was surprised to see that it was a perfect fit.

“How did you even know my size?”

“I told you, Danny, I know everything about you.” Steve was finally smiling, and his eyes were shining. Danny didn't think he'd ever seen Steve look at him with such reverence.

“You think that's a good thing, but it's really not, you creep. Now come here.”

Danny pulled Steve closer to get rid of the distance between them that was starting to get on his nerves. Steve came without any resistance and Danny kissed him, slow and sweet. They snuggled close together and then kissed some more.

“I don't suppose you have your grandfather's ring?”

“I do, actually. For some reason he wasn't wearing it on the day of the attack, so my grandmother kept it.”

“Well, then you'd better get it fixed, too. I'm not the only one who's gonna be walking around with your name written on me. People should know that you've been claimed, too.” Even though Danny winked at Steve, he wasn't joking. He wanted to show Steve the same kind of commitment. He wanted Steve and everyone else to know that they were in this together.

“Yes, Danno.” Steve let out a put upon sigh, but Danny knew it was just for show. They'd just taken a very important step in their relationship. A lot more important than a special date.

 

**Author's Note:**

> My [tumblr](http://whenamarshmallowmeetsahothead.tumblr.com/) is exclusively McDanno.


End file.
